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When you spend much of the day at a desk, investing in an ergonomic office chair can be money well spent. And one of our favorites is the Doro C300 Pro V2, currently $400 (was $500) at Sihoo in the Labor Day sale when you combine codes BTS20 and WELCOME10.
Testing this desk chair, we found it comfortable, highly adjustable, and very well built. Yes, it's still a considerable investment, but you're getting a high-end ergonomic design with adjustable seat depth, 8D armrests, adaptive lumbar support and a 135-degree recline.
The breathable mesh construction will also help keep you comfortable, and the wide adjustable headrest and weight-responsive recline system provide additional ways to tailor the chair to how you prefer to sit. In the UK, the Doro C300 V2 is down to £410 (was £460) at Sihoo with code Sale20 as part of the back-to-school sale.
Doro C300 Pro V2 Ergonomic Office Chair: was $499.99 now $399.99
The chair combines breathable mesh construction with self-adaptive lumbar support, a flexible backrest, adjustable seat depth, 8D armrests and a wide 3D headrest. You can recline to 105, 125 or 135 degrees, with the resistance automatically responding to your weight. Use coupon codes BTS20 and WELCOME10 to get the cheapest price.
In the UK: now £410 (was £460) at Sihoo with code Sale20View Deal
Why we recommend itOne of the more interesting things about Sihoo's Doro C300 Pro V2 is that many of its ergonomic features aren't simply fixed supports that you adjust once and forget about. The backrest and lumbar support are designed to respond as you lean forward, recline or otherwise change position.
In his 4-star review, our chair expert Collin called it a "robust ergonomic office chair with more features than you probably know what to do with."
He added: "This is a spectacular chair when you sit in it. It doesn't blend in and takes up a lot of space. So, if you’re the kind of person who likes that, this may be a dream come true."
Should you buy it?✅ Buy the Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 if...
If you spend much of your working day sitting at a computer, the Doro C300 Pro V2 has an impressive range of ergonomic features. Adaptive lumbar and back support, adjustable seat depth and a weight-responsive recline system allow the chair to respond to your position rather than relying entirely on fixed settings.
The 8D armrests, wide 3D headrest and three recline positions give you plenty of scope to find the perfect setup.
❌ Skip the Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 if...
If you only spend a few hours a week at a desk, it's hard to justify paying $400 for features you may rarely appreciate. A simpler ergonomic chair could provide everything you need while costing considerably less.
The Doro C300 Pro V2 is also relatively large and relies heavily on supportive mesh rather than the thick padding found on more traditional executive-style chairs.
Price context & historical valueThe Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 is currently $409.99 at Sihoo, down from the usual $499.99. That's a pretty good deal, but if you use coupon codes BTS20 and WELCOME10 you can slash the price down to a penny under $400.
The chair is also on sale at Amazon at the moment, but it's $449.98 there.
The Catch: What to know before you buyThe obvious drawback is the price. $399.99 is still a lot to spend on an office chair. There's also an important point about highly adjustable ergonomic chairs: more adjustment doesn't automatically mean greater comfort for everyone. The Doro C300 Pro V2 offers plenty of ways to tailor your seating position, but personal preference, height and body shape can make a considerable difference to how comfortable any chair feels.
Its 28.74-inch width also means this chair might be a bit large for anyone working in a more compact office space.
Maybe money does not explain everything, but it explains a lot. Goldman Sachs estimates the AI build-out will require roughly $7.6 trillion in capital over the next five years across compute, data centers and power. It’s unlikely that subscriptions alone will cover the bill, which is why ads are coming to AI.
OpenAI started rolling out ads in some ChatGPT tiers this year and forecasts $2.5 billion in ad revenue in 2026 and $100 billion by 2030. At an ad tech event this summer, OpenAI's chief revenue officer Denise Dresser dropped the hedging and said the company is "clearly in the advertising business now."
Perplexity, on the other hand, shut down its ad business entirely over user trust. Similar products, same opportunity, opposite conclusions.
This conflict is not new and the open web fought this battle 15 years ago, when ad blocking became mainstream.
Now, the AI industry is on track to repeat every mistake of the so-called ad blocking wars, unless it studies them instead.
Lesson one: users revolt faster than big platforms thinkWhen ad formats became more intrusive - because again, money! - the industry assumed users would just accept a bad experience. Instead, users fought back and installed software to get rid of aggressive online ads. In what technology commentator Doc Searls called “the biggest boycott in world history”, ad blocking went from being a niche tool to a mainstream product.
And we see the same dynamic playing out again. Within weeks of sponsored ads appearing in ChatGPT, purpose-built extensions popped up to specifically block ads there. Existing ad blocking tools made sure to block those ads as well. It took hours and days, not weeks or months, for users to act.
Lesson two: the arms race is unwinnable, both legal and technicalThe predictable response is, of course, to sue ad blockers. For some publishers, the idea that users take agency over their own screens was not acceptable, so they took ad blocker developers to court. Almost all of the legal attempts failed. With one case still pending at the German courts, China is the only country in the world that bans ad blockers.
Another tactic is technology to fight ad blockers. Platforms tried different circumvention methods to deliver ads to users with ad blockers installed. This prompted their developers to update their techniques to prevent websites from bypassing. Every technical escalation met a counter-escalation and the sum of a lot of engineering efforts on both sides is that, today, over a billion people still block ads.
AI platforms hold one card their predecessors didn't, though: integrating advertising directly into the generated answers, instead of showing labelled ads. Researchers from the University of Michigan tried exactly this and the results should worry everyone involved: users largely don't expect advertising inside a generated answer and frequently fail to notice it.
At the same time, 63% of consumers say ads decrease their trust in AI outputs, according to Ipsos. The format that works best technically is the one users are least equipped to detect, and least willing to trust. Which brings us to the most important lesson.
Lesson three: trust is the actual productSearch results pages survived the ad blocking wars because users had ten blue links to compare with the sponsored content and two decades of learning what’s paid and what’s organic. AI assistants, on the other hand, offer one authoritative answer, with no other content or adjacent organic results to check against.
As soon as users suspect that answers might be influenced by a sponsor, these doubts are attached to all answers and trust erodes.
Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification”, which the American Dialect Society crowned as its Word of the Year in 2023. Platforms start out by doing good to their users and then degrade their experience to make advertisers happy.
And compared to tracking-based advertising in the open web, AI assistants know so much more about you that they can sell to advertisers: your health worries, your finances, your political view, your job struggles and everything else these tools picked up from you, stitched into one persistent memory of who you are.
It’s the most revealing personal record people have ever handed to software, combined with the drive from digital advertising to always collect more data and more data for targeting. The table is set for the next wave of enshittification.
Lesson four: the ad blocking wars ended in a treaty, not a victoryThere was no final winner and not one technical solution that settled ad blocking in the open web. There was a rough settlement: standards for ad formats many users tolerate, transparency about what is paid for, meaningful user control.
Not everyone loves that settlement and we still see platforms trying to circumvent ad blockers and vice versa. But the open web still has a functioning ad economy and users still have, mostly, a functioning veto.
Getting there took more than a decade and the lessons are written down. Which road to take is now a genuine choice and it sits with the AI companies themselves.
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With a bank holiday weekend almost here in the UK, Currys has launched another of its Epic Deals events, featuring savings of up to 40% on loads of top tech products. I've done my usual thing of searching through the sale and picked out 12 of the best deals I'd recommend on TVs, laptops, appliances, headphones, and more.
• View the full Currys Epic Deals sale
As the back-to-school sales are still ongoing, it's no surprise that laptops make up a large part of this sale. If there's one offer that stands out amongst everything, though, it's this Acer Aspire 14 for £549 (was £699).
It's a great price for a modern, powerful laptop that features one of the newer, more efficient Snapdragon X processors, plus 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD — excellent specs for college, university, or everyday use. As well as high levels of performance for work and productivity needs, it also boasts an amazing 28 hours of battery life, which is great if you're always on the move.
Other deals I like the look of in the Currys Epic Deals sale include this five-star LG C6 48-inch OLED TV for £1,199 (was £1,399), these great value Bose QuietComfort Earbuds for £119 (was £179), and the popular Dyson V8 Vacuum Cleaner for £239 (was £349).
You can check out all of my top picks below, or have a browse through all the major categories from the sale to see if anything else looks good to you. Expect these offers to be available for at least a week, so you've got a bit of time before you need to hit that buy button.
Currys bank holiday sale — quick links- Appliances: up to 40% off Bosch & Beko
- Headphones: JBL & Bose from £39.99
- Health & Beauty: up to £150 off Philips & Braun
- Kitchen: up to £550 off Tefal & De'Longhi
- Laptops: from £179
- Outdoors: up to 40% off DIY & tools
- Phones: up to £100 off Apple & Samsung
- Tablets: Lenovo & Samsung from £159
- TVs: from £109.99
- Vacuums: up to £150 off Dyson & Vax
Aspire 14: was £699 now £549
Display - 14 inches
Processor - Snapdragon X
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB
This is a great price for a relatively modern laptop that comes with a well-performing and efficient Snapdragon X CPU. On top of that, you get 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and incredible battery life of up to 28 hours, which represents good value for money overall. I like it as a light, portable and capable all-around everyday machine.View Deal
As some of the best noise-cancelling earbuds on the market, it's great to see this £60 price drop on the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds. For the money, you get amazing active noise cancellation and beautifully balanced sound, all topped off with a gorgeous design and impressive 8.5-hour battery life. Altogether, these are some of the best mid-range earbuds available now for a record-low price.View Deal
Aspire Go 15: was £649 now £449
Display - 15.6 inches
Processor - Intel Core i5
RAM - 16GB
Storage - 512GB
Here's a solid and affordable Windows laptop available at Currys. It's an older machine, but there's no denying it's a solid entry-level choice for the price, including an Intel Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD for storage. It's a great buy if you want a good laptop with decent battery life for everyday use, work, or school.View Deal
The Dyson V8 is now older, but it remains one of the top affordable vacuums and also one of the best Dyson vacuums – period. This still more-than-capable vacuum comes with a couple of essential attachments for cleaning around the home. Given its age and basic features, it's a struggle to recommend it at its full price, but now that it's discounted so heavily at Currys, it's an easy recommendation.View Deal
We thought that the iPhone 17 Pro Max was the best iPhone ever in our review, and here's a chance to save some cash on this latest model at Currys. With a fresh new design, an outstanding camera array, a powerful chipset, and excellent battery life, it's everything you'd want from a premium Apple phone.View Deal
Promising simplicity of use, the De'Longhi Magnifica S features an easy-to-use touch control panel that lets you brew two cups simultaneously with minimal effort. It also has a silent integrated grinder with 13 settings, plus a handy milk frother too, so it’s a good all-in-one solution at a very affordable price.View Deal
Bravia 8 II 55-inch OLED TV: was £1999 now £1899
The latest version of Sony's Bravia 8 is an incredible OLED TV that boasts some of the best picture quality to date, according to our review. The display was only released this year and this is the biggest discount yet. Sure, it's still quite the investment, but you do get a picture quality that's bright, vivid, and detailed, with strong in-built sound as well. It's perhaps not the best pick for gamers, though, given it lacks some features compared to the competition.View Deal
DeskJet 2910 All-in-One Wireless Inkjet Printer: was £54.99 now £39.99
If you need a cheap and cheerful printer, this DeskJet 2910 is a great budget choice that supports wireless printing, scanning, and copying. This bundle also includes three months of HP Instant Ink, so you can save cash on your first few rounds of prints.View Deal
C6 48-inch OLED TV: was £1399 now £1199
LG reclaimed the top spot on our best TV guide with the C6, as it boasts fantastic overall picture quality and excellent all-around performance, making it the number one pick for most people's needs. Contrast is top-tier, with vivid colors and rich blacks, while motion is handled expertly. No matter if you're watching films, streaming TV shows, playing games, or watching sports, it's up to the job.View Deal
Yoga Slim 7: was £999 now £699
Display: 14 inch OLED
Processor: Intel Core Ultra 5
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB
If display quality is just as important to you as power, then strongly consider this Lenovo Yoga deal at Currys. It comes with a top-end OLED screen that offers a clear and sharp image – whether you're working on documents or streaming your favourite TV shows. Specs are solid elsewhere, too, including a capable Intel Core Ultra 5 CPU and 16GB of RAM that ensure good overall performance.View Deal
WV2 Plus Window Vac: was £69.99 now £49.99
You can save a decent £20 on the Karcher WV2 in the Currys bank holiday sale, bringing down the basic window vac to under £50. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery boasts a 35-minute run time, which equals about 105m² on a single charge. That’s more than enough to do a small home or flat multiple times over.View Deal
A clear party piece or ideal addition to your World Cup viewing party if there ever was one, this PerfectDraft Beer Dispenser connects up to compatible 6-litre kegs of your favourite tipple and pours them like you were just down the pub. The convenient LCD screen shows how much is left and when the beer or cider is at the right temperature, while its compact design and dishwasher-safe components mean it's easy to store and clean.View Deal
On its own, an air fryer is a low-effort, efficient kitchen appliance. But add the right accessories and you can take things to another level, enabling your trusty fryer to tackle a wider range of cooking tasks, and deliver even more delicious results. Plus, if you're armed with the right kit, there'll be even less effort required from you.
As a former TechRadar Homes Editor — and proud owner of two air fryers — I have a good idea of the accessories worth investing in. Well, I say 'investing' but most of my picks are under a tenner, so it's more an investment in terms of cupboard space than cash. I've rounded up my top recommendations below, with sections for air fryer liners (wave goodbye to messy cleanup), utensils (including a £5 pick for extra-crispy results) and inserts (to increase capacity without buying a bigger air fryer).
If you don't already have an air fryer, head to our general best air fryer guide for our top recommendations.
Air fryer linersGood silicone basket liners are an excellent investment for any air fryer-owner, mainly because they're much easier to clean (and especially if you have a dishwasher). I use these all the time — in fact, the only time I wouldn't use one of these would be if I was cooking something I want to get really crispy underneath. I avoid them for cheese on toast, for instance, to avoid a soggy bottom.
Choose from solid or collapsible liners — the latter is a win when it comes to storage, but the fold lines are a potential weak point, so be prepared for them to break more quickly than a solid option. To avoid disaster when trying to remove your hot food from its basket, seek out liners with sturdy handles.
You can also use basket liners to add versatility to what you can cook. For instance, there are brownie trays, cupcake cases and waffle trays in the mix here. I've also included a disposable liner option, for situations where washing up is going to be too tricky.
Tower Set of 2 Silicone Air Fryer Rectangular Solid Trays Tower Set of 2 Silicone Air Fryer Square Foldable Trays Tower Round Solid Silicone Tray with Divider Lakeland 2x Air Fryer Silicone Brownie Moulds Lakeland 2x Air Fryer Round Silicone Moulds ProCook Silicone Air Fryer Liner Rectangle 19.5 X 12.5cm Generic Air Fryer Liners for Dual Zone Air Fryers (100pcs) Air fryer insertsA genius trick to to increase your usable cooking space is by adding an insert that creates a second tier within your air fryer basket. If you have a relatively large basket in the first place, you can even stack multiple racks to cook several layers of food at once. Hot air should still circulate efficiently — and especially so if you use a rack with vent holes — to deliver crispier, more evenly cooked food than you'd get if you piled everything up inside.
Below are a few options. I've also included a mesh basket — this is designed to be used in a similar way to the liners above; to make cleaning easier. However, the more open structure should help deliver crispier results. Some even have divots into which skewers can rest, for 360-degree cooking. Before purchasing, it's vital to measure the inside of your cooking basket(s) and check the product dimensions carefully, to ensure the inserts will fit in there.
Tefal Tefal 4-Piece Air Fryer Accessory Set, Non-Stick Carbon Steel Tala Stainless Steel 2 Tier Air Fryer Rack & 4 Skewers Kitchen Master Rectangle Stainless Steel Air fryer Rack Tower 8 piece Silicone Air Fryer Accessory Set Lakeland Air Fryer Mesh Basket Air fryer utensilsFinally, there are a number of utensils that'll make cooking with an air fryer simpler and less messy — not to mention lowering the chance of burning yourself or your kitchen surfaces. If you don't already have one, I'd suggest investing in a heatproof mat or trivet. It doesn't need to be anything special; it just gives you somewhere to put your fryer basket down when you're removing the hot food. I've had too many accidents when trying to do this one-handed, or with the basket balancing precariously on the hob top.
Silicone utensils including tongs, scoops and spatulas allow you to remove food efficiently without risking scratches on the non-stick surface. I've also included a pastry brush — I use one of these to lightly coat food in oil before cooking, so it goes extra-crispy, but without using too much oil.
Finally, there's a meat thermometer that'll help you ensure your cuts of meat are cooked through before serving — this is especially handy if you're still getting used to the different timings compared to a full-sized cooker. And because air fryers really shine when it comes to chips, I've thrown in a potato chipper so you can make your own.
OXO Good Grips Roast Scoop ProCook Wood & Silicone Spoonula Blue 26cm ProCook Silicone Pastry Brush Green 26cm procook Silicone Tongs Green 29cm Potato Chipper Stainless Steel Tower Vortx 17-Piece Air Fryer Oven Baking Bundle Lakeland Heat Resistant Air Fryer Mat Folding Trivet — Sage ProCook Silicone Trivet — Duck Egg Blue ThermoMaven Digital Meat ThermometerIs Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls one of the best fighting games of recent times? Yes, I would say so. Given its developer is Arc System Works — creators of Guilty Gear, Blazblue, and the excellent Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising — it was a pretty safe bet that we'd be served a high quality fighting game with mountainous respect and reverence for Marvel and its roster of supers, mutants, and weirdos.
Review infoPlatform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, PC
Release date: August 6, 2026
I love fighting games, but I'm not usually one for tag fighters — often because I find learning more than one character intimidating and time-consuming. So, when Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls was first revealed last year as a 4v4 tag fighter, I'd already resigned myself to thinking: 'well, that's probably not for me.'
Not two, not three, but four? You're having a laugh.
I needn't have worried so much. Arc System Works has designed Fighting Souls such that learning a quartet of fighters inside and out is absolutely not necessary. It's possible to play that way at a higher level, of course. But as your team only has a single health bar, you can rock one character as your main, while relying on the remaining three as assist moves to help you out in a pinch.
It helps, too, that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has a fantastic onboarding process for new players. The game's story mode is broken into five episodes — each focused on a group of heroes (the Avengers, X-Men, etc.) or the villainous Knights of Doom. Episode chapters are structured to introduce you to fighters and their strengths, or otherwise various important system mechanics. Training tools are similarly great, with a fully-featured training mode, combo trials, and an ingenious 'level-up missions' category that tasks you with creating your own combos to reach a damage threshold.
All good so far, but I unfortunately have to stress that Tokon's immediate future looks perilous. The PC version of the game is currently facing myriad issues, many of which seem to be a direct result of corporate interference.
At the time of writing, Arc System Works is hard at work deploying patches to improve PC matchmaking and performance, but I'm not sure there's a fix for intrusive anti-cheat bloatware and forcing PlayStation Network account creation to access its online features.
Absolutely champion(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)Enough doom and gloom for now. I'd rather chat about all the elements that I feel make Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls such a wonderful game for a bit. For me, it started with its single-player story mode.
Titled 'Episodes', Tokon's story is broken into five distinct, well, episodes. Each is centered around one of the game's five main teams. The Fighting Avengers, for example, are your stalwart heroes like Captain America and Black Panther.
The Samurai Outriders are made up of anti-heroes and tricksters like Deadpool and Loki. Meanwhile, the Knights of Doom bring a more villainous flavor, stacked with evildoers like Doctor Doom, Green Goblin, and Carnage.
Best bit(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)I'm in love with Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls' eclectic moment-to-moment tag bouts, but a special shoutout has to go to the game's wicked cel-shaded presentation. Marvel icons have been given a distinctly Arc System Works flavor — their appearance, animation, and super move cut-ins are all top-tier stuff.
The premise is simple. An intergalactic fighter called the Champion is holding Earth hostage, and the aforementioned five teams have been selected to participate in a tournament to decide the planet's future. Each episode culminates in a fight with the Champion, and individual chapters are bookended with stunning comic book cutscenes, with each episode even featuring a unique artist and colorist.
This lends all of them a unique sense of identity, and helps to keep things feeling fresh as you progress. Each episode is about an hour long, and all are worth playing through as you'll not only get a feel for each individual character, you will also unlock colors for a bit of added flair for your faves. Oh, and as a bonus, you'll also unlock the Champion as a playable character upon clearing your first episode.
There are a lot of fun character moments, too. Ms. Marvel is often adorably starstruck by the heroes she encounters. The X-Men are flabberghasted that Magneto would team up with an egotistical maniac like Doctor Doom. There's a cute running gag between episodes where everyone gives Loki the side eye, despite a seeming earnestness from the God of Lies to genuinely turn over a new leaf in the search for his brother Thor (who is currently mysteriously absent from the game's playable roster).
Overall, Episodes are a great way to kick off your Tokon journey. It'll help you find characters you enjoy playing, and present a charming story that's well worth playing through just to experience its wonderful artwork and voiced performances.
Assist me(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is remarkably easy to just pick up and play, and I reckon you'll have a blast in local play with friends for casual couch bouts. Movement, special moves, assists, and supers are all straightforward to execute. For specials in particular, you have options for simple or motion inputs with the d-pad. Motion-inputted special moves (such as quarter-circle-forward) do around 10% more damage on average, so you'll have a bit of an edge if you can master weaving them into your gameplan.
The 4v4 setup can be wonderfully chaotic; there's no limit to the number of characters that can appear on-screen, so it's very possible to spam the assist button to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent in a pinch.
Characters you place in your assist slots are highly versatile, and can be individually called upon by pressing the assist button and the corresponding direction on the d-pad. One assist slot is for projectile, for example, while another is a vertical for anti-airs. This is universal across the cast, so you don't have to be precious about which characters you choose if you're only planning on maining one or two.
Elsewhere, you can perform an assist counter while guarding to get your opponent off of you, or even swap to one of your assists to directly control them. There's a ton you can do with assists, and learning to incorporate them in your playstyle is a huge part of the learning process. It sounds like a lot, and it is, and there's much more assists can do, like extending your combos and taking part in a massively damaging last round super. It might take a bit to wrap your head around, but thankfully, the tools are there to help you get to grips with assists and more besides.
Trained to perfection(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has some of the best tutorialization I've ever seen in a fighting game. You of course have a fully fleshed out training mode, where you can freely practice combos and setups against a dummy. There is also a comprehensive tutorial section known as the Battle Guide, that'll walk you through basics like movement all the way to advanced techniques like wakeup options and blocking cross-ups.
Of particular note is Character Lessons, which includes primers on every character playable in the game. These start off with basic move introductions, as well as the properties of each characters' unique button. For example, Storm's Tempest unique lets her control the wind to push herself and her opponent around. Magik's unique has her placing a portal that she can instantly warp to and perform attack out of to surprise the opponent.
Lessons then offer a selection of combos for you to try out for each character, many weaving in assists, special moves, and supers. Finally, the highlight of Character Lessons for me are the Level-Up Missions, which task you with performing a combo to meet a certain amount of damage. These don't hold your hand much, with little guidance outside of telling you which button to start your combo with, or to include a special move at some point. They're great fun to experiment with, and even unlock colors for your characters, too.
Once you feel sufficiently warmed up, I highly recommend jumping into Arena mode for some offline quickplay. This is essentially the game's Arcade mode, in which you play through a series of five matches. You'll get to choose your route as you go through, unlocking some lovely concept art for your efforts.
There's also Survival mode; a 100-match gauntlet with some light roguelite elements. Between matches in Survival mode, you'll get to choose and upgrade Support Souls — cards that offer various benefits like increased movement speed or attack power. Getting through all 100 is no easy task, though, with several significant difficulty spikes on your way to the top. But again, your efforts will be rewarded with unique character colors if you make it to the end.
True believers(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)If you're familiar with Arc System Works' back catalog, it should come as no surprise that Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is a mind-bendingly gorgeous fighting game.
The developer is the master of modern cel-shading, and the roster of Marvel icons look even sharper here than characters do in Guilty Gear Strive and Dragonball FighterZ. Not that those games are slouches at all in the visual department, but Tokon by comparison looks impressively pristine at all times.
There aren't a ton of characters or stages at launch (I personally think 21 characters is a bit slim given the 4v4 setup), but when they look and animate as well as they do, I can forgive the base roster being as svelte as it is by tag fighter standards.
Every character is brimming with personality and charming little touches. Doom's cartoonish aptitude for evil is perfectly captured in his intimidating slow walk and thousand-yard stare. Ms. Marvel's attacks feel peppy, snappy, and excitable. And Deadpool? Well, almost every move in his arsenal is a loving reference to other iconic fighting games, and there are some impressively deep cuts therein.
The game's background stages are a real draw, too. The New York City stage is teeming with detail and references to the wider world of Marvel. The X-Mansion tends to populate the further a match progresses, with iconic X-Men like Psylocke, Colossus, and Gambit appearing in the background. If you're a Marvel head, you'll likely love the amount of respect and admiration Arc System Works has for the brand.
Pride before a fall(Image credit: Sony / Marvel)Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is another slam-dunk for Arc System Works, then. With it and the recent Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics compilation, I'm ecstatic to see Marvel active again in the realm of fighting games. But every story has its villain, and for Tokon, it's not the Champion. It's Sony.
I hate to admit that I'm concerned for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls' future. On PC, the game's anti-cheat DRM worsens performance. Furthermore, Linux and mod support are non-starters, and because online play requires a PlayStation Network account, countries where the service isn't supported (there are well over 100 of them) can't access network features at all. Throw in lopsided netcode that discourages crossplay between PS5 and PC, and you have a recipe for an exceptionally messy launch month largely thanks to publisher meddling.
For these reasons, I can't give Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls a glowing recommendation, as much as I would like to. At least if you were planning to pick up the game on PC. I want Tokon to have a long, bright future, but I worry that too much damage has already been done. Now, the state of the game has improved since launch in regards to performance and matchmaking quality, thanks to a small handful of fixes deployed by Arc System Works.
I just can't help but feel anxious about this rocky PC launch. Especially with the recent news that Riot Games is shuttering development on its League of Legends fighting game, 2XKO. It shows that huge companies absolutely aren't afraid to completely tear down a good thing if it isn't generating satisfactory revenue or player count. If folks walk away from Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls because of the issues it's facing on PC, then what's stopping Sony from doing the same?
I hope I'm just overthinking it. Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is one of the most fun and unique fighting games I've played in some time, and I hope its candle won't be snuffed out before it truly gets the chance to shine its brightest.
Should I play Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls?Play it if...You love the Marvel tag fighters of old
Living up to Marvel vs. Capcom's legacy is no easy task. And while Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is doing its own thing with its own roster, it's nonetheless continued proof that Marvel and tag fighters are a winning combination.
You're completely new to fighting games
Learning fighting games can be daunting, and Tokon certainly has a high skill ceiling with its tagging and various system mechanics. But elements like auto combos, easy special move inputs, and a recognizable roster of Marvel icons make this game incredibly newcomer-friendly.
You want the PC version
This hopefully won't be a dealbreaker for long especially with the impressive pace Arc System Works is deploying fixes. But PC performance and matchmaking issues are still ongoing, and it may be worth waiting a few months for the Steam version to catch up with its PS5 counterpart in overall quality.
At launch, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has a small handful of accessibility features, largely utilizing text-to-speech options.
You can enable text-to-speech and adjust its volume and speed. You can also choose to enable or disable subtitles that display during battle entrances and conclusions.
How I reviewed Marvel Tokon: Fighting SoulsI played Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls on PC for approximately 15 hours for this review. I completed the episodic story mode in its entirety, cleared most Arcade mode routes, and put a good chunk of hours into training mode, character lesson guides, and casual online play.
I tested the game with the GameSir G7 Pro controller, as well as the leverless Razer Kitsune. I also hooked up my RIG 900 Max HS gaming headset to experience the game's excellent audio and wonderfully upbeat soundtrack.
First reviewed August 2026
At next month's September Apple Event, we expect the tech giant to introduce the Apple Watch 12 alongside the new iPhone.
While rumors are sparse about what new additions the Series 12 will have, we've had a year with the Apple Watch Series 11, and we think it's an excellent smartwatch that's packed with insightful features — and it's currently on sale.
Amazon has the Apple Watch 11 on sale for $299 (was $399), which is a $100 discount from its original price and only $20 more than the record low.
• Shop more daily deals at Amazon
The Apple Watch Series 11 was released at last year's September Event and is the thinnest and most durable Apple smartwatch, and is 2x more scratch-resistant than its predecessor. The smartwatch uses 5G connectivity for improved connectivity, while still offering an impressive battery life of up to 24 hours. Health features include hypertension detection and advanced sleep monitoring, which provide a personalized Sleep Score with helpful insights to help you sleep better.
Watch Series 11, 42mm: was $399 now $299
Ahead of next month's rumored Apple Watch 12 release, Amazon has the Apple Watch 11 on sale for $299 - just $20 more than the record-low price. The Series 11 is Apple's thinnest and most durable smartwatch, with upgrades like 5G connectivity, 24-hour battery life, and new health and sleep insights.View Deal
The Apple Watch 12 is expected to launch at the same price as the Series 11, which is $399. While it's guaranteed to have new features, most people will be satisfied with everything that the Apple Watch 11 has to offer, and it's $100 cheaper.
Remember that big leak about Microsoft having begun developing a version of Windows that was built around AI, before eventually abandoning the project? Well, it's surfaced again, this time with some interesting new information on just how focused Microsoft was on Copilot, which I think is quite telling — or indeed worrying for those who believe Microsoft might be backtracking on AI somehow.
Windows Latest has gone back over the leak (which was first reported by our sister site Windows Central last month) with a fine-tooth comb, and the tech site flagged up some fresh details that flew under the radar at the time.
To recap briefly, the concept of the OS shown, codenamed 'Project Aion' — with the leaked material dating back to 2024 — was a lightweight web-based version of a Windows operating system that streamed apps to the desktop (as opposed to running them natively on the PC) and put Copilot at the heart of the experience.
This was a horror show of an idea for many, of course, and what Windows Latest starkly highlights here is the extent to which Microsoft was building Aion around AI. In a SharePoint site in the leak, it's described as a "Copilot OS" and a cross-platform system that can span all devices and is generically known as an "Agent OS".
The broader idea, is said to be of an operating system fashioned around "an agent that marshals and organizes all the capabilities of our computers and our clouds on our behalf", and that this is known as an "agent of agents" or the "outside agent".
"The version that Microsoft will build should be known as Copilot OS or the Outside Copilot," the top-level description on the SharePoint site observes. Another term mentioned is a "self-driving OS", which hints at the desire to build an autonomous platform powered by AI here.
Copilot is envisioned as being the "primary way people express, entertain, and educate themselves, and complete tasks across all aspects of their lives".
But Aion is dead, right? Yes… but hold up a minute(Image credit: Getty Images)So, what's the big deal here? Windows Latest breathes a sigh of relief that the "odds are already in favor" of this abandoned Aion concept staying dead and buried, arguing that Microsoft is clearly backtracking on AI features these days. And that's very true — there's no denying that Microsoft has reversed course on pushing AI quite so hard as it did in 2025.
But I don't think we can declare that 'Aion is dead' quite so readily. Yes, that exact concept may be buried, but there are nuances here. For me, what Windows Latest has surfaced shows just how serious Microsoft was about exploring the idea of a fully AI-driven desktop. More to the point, an operating system that was effectively an 'agent of agents', or an overseeing AI pulling the strings of a collection of smaller dedicated agents working within the framework of that system.
Here's the thing: Microsoft's efforts to rein in AI within Windows 11 certainly exist (although I wonder about how much of this is for show, frankly). The software giant is currently delivering its best effort to please the disgruntled masses, and a big part of that is fixing Windows 11 — but another hefty piece of the puzzle is to place less emphasis on AI and shoveling more Copilot features into the desktop OS.
But don't be mistaken here: Microsoft still very much sees AI as the future. The company just realizes that it can't be vocal about that right now, especially given that the RAM crisis has forced 8GB laptops back onto the scene, as notebook makers, including Microsoft itself, try to cope with hefty spikes in the cost of manufacturing these devices.
It's a bit embarrassing to be talking about Copilot+ PCs needing 16GB of RAM for AI features when Surface models have had to be reintroduced packing 8GB to get their price down to a vaguely palatable level. Indeed, talk of Copilot+ devices seems to have evaporated this year, as if Microsoft feels this is best brushed under the carpet for now. While a recent leak from Lenovo talked about 'Non-Copilot' laptops with less than 16GB of memory (as flagged by Windows Latest), this kind of spec talk isn't something you'll hear from Microsoft.
Downplaying AI is the tactic for now, but not forever(Image credit: Microsoft)For me, it's clear enough that Microsoft is downplaying AI in a strategic manner for the time being, and likely through to next year. The next big thing, however, remains AI agents in Windows, even if Windows 11 isn't going to be transformed into next-gen Windows Copilot (or whatever a more AI-centric desktop platform might be called).
Microsoft is still very busy working on those agents. These entities will begin the shift towards an operating system that's built around AI, with smaller-scale agents executing dedicated tasks on the local PC (with the user's permission, of course, to access stuff). This will be a gradual ramping up of AI usage within Windows 11 (and while folks who hate AI and everything it stands for won't have to go anywhere near these agents, doubtless the idea is that minds will be changed eventually).
I think it's also telling that in Microsoft's recent roundup of the progress it's made in fixing Windows 11, the company talked about future improvements for the OS later this year, and a central aim was to streamline resource usage so the operating system runs better with 8GB of RAM. Interestingly, a few other goals were listed alongside that, and one of them was to make "voice more natural and fluid to interact across the apps you use every day". If you recall, part of the initial sales pitch for AI in Windows 11 was Copilot Voice (and Vision), so I think the importance placed on voice functionality here reflects a broader AI goal that's still in the background.
Ultimately, I think Microsoft is still pushing towards an operating system that's built around AI; it's just that the timeline to reach this end-game objective has been pushed further out. While Project Aion as leaked before was too big a concept, it clearly shows how Microsoft ranks the importance of AI for the future — and I think it's a mistake to think this idea is somehow 'dead' or derailed.
As far as I'm concerned, this remains the destination where Microsoft is heading with next-gen Windows: a lightweight (possibly modular) OS focused on AI, and one that leverages the cloud and streamed apps, too. I think the leaked Project Aion shows us the future as Microsoft wants to realize it, but what it doesn't mention at all is what I think will be another key driver for the software giant: subscription charges.
The golden ticket for Microsoft is to get consumers subscribing to the Windows platform (as businesses do – well, enterprises anyway). AI agents as Windows add-ons with a small monthly (or yearly) fee attached seems a likely way to bring this monetization method into play while making minimal waves (and I recently discussed how there are signs that this is already happening).
That will eventually turn into a grander scheme, and Windows could, over time, end up getting a lot closer to the Aion or Copilot OS concept than some might imagine — although admittedly, that could still be a long way off.